1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to compressors incorporated in, for example, vehicle air-conditioning systems, and more particularly, to structure of mufflers for compressors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Compressors having a suction muffler in a suction gas passage or in a discharge gas passage are known in the prior art. The muffler includes a space used to reduce pulsation components of the suction gas or the discharge gas. The pulsation components are reflected to cause mutual interference between one another. This decreases vibrations and noise that result from the pulsation.
Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 59-135385 describes a compressor that is provided with a typical muffler structure. The compressor has a housing that houses a compressing mechanism. A muffler chamber is defined between a recess, which is provided in the peripheral portion of the housing, and a cover, which is a component independent from the housing and which seals the recess. However, in this prior art example, the housing and the separate cover must be provided to define the muffler chamber. Accordingly, this increases the number of parts required to constitute the muffler and increases the number of assembly steps. Thus, the structure of this muffler resulted in an increase in the production cost of the compressor.
Furthermore, the muffler chamber of the above compressor causes the reflection and interference of the pulsation components of the suction gas or the discharge gas to be monotonous. Thus, the reduction of the gas pulsation is inefficient.